# How did you into cigars?



## Chillin (May 11, 2013)

Sorry if there's a thread on this already.

I'm just curious as to how other people got interested in cigars. I just wanted something that would allow me to relax on the rare occasions I had time to myself. I had smoked a couple of cigars in the past and found it enjoyable. I don't really know any other cigar smokers so no one really introduced me to it. I guess that's what also lead me to this forum. To learn from others. 

What about you guys?


----------



## thebigk (Jan 16, 2013)

first off welcome to puff 
for it was when I saw a thompsons catalog the pics made the cigars look great so I ordered the power house 10 and 2 for the troops and now 6 years and 10's of thousands of dollars later still enjoy it just as much


----------



## Gdaddy (Sep 20, 2012)

When I was stationed in Guantanamo bay (1970) I started smoking the Cuban cigars offered in a little little shack they had built atop of a hill to serve as a bar. Drinking beer over looking the blue Caribbean. The cigars were .25 each.


----------



## HIM (Sep 12, 2012)

Welcome to Puff Tony youve come to a great place!!!

I used to smoke cigars on occasion with one of my best friends dad throughout high school. I enjoyed but never was really big into it. Then years later another one of my best friends gave me an Oliva V on his birthday to join him for a smoke. That set me off on the slippery slope and the rest is history.

Don, that must have been a serious tease for the people in Gitmo. My daughters grandfather served some time there before coming to America and he said prisoners were allowed 1 cigarette a day. Pretty sh!tty.


----------



## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

Welcome to Puff Tony. 

I got my first cigar in Canada for a bachelor party. It was a Partagas something, that night was kind of hazy if you know what I mean. :drinking: 

Any who...a couple of weeks latter, I found my self in a walk-in humidor as my friend was buying a pack of Marlboro and I picked up a Monte Cristo. When I left the store, I felt ripped-off for paying $8.50 for a cigar (10 years ago). This led me to search for online retailers where I could find better deals. That's where I found Thomson cigars. Although I barely ordered anything from Thompson, I enjoyed reading the description in the catalog and learning about the cigar construction and origins. The more I read, the more I wanted to find out. A year later I got my first humidor from Cuban Crafters, and I haven't looked back.


----------



## Shady (May 9, 2013)

Started off in 2011 smoking Black and Milds with the fraternity I was pledging at the time. Got out of those for a while, then one night after fire training (I'm a volunteer firefighter, we have training twice a month) the chief passed out cigars, I forget the brand now, and I was hooked.


----------



## Chillin (May 11, 2013)

Thanks for the welcoming. My first purchase was through the local B&M but i've ordered a couple times through Thompson. I actually received a sampler from them yesterday that I'm looking forward too.


----------



## Chillin (May 11, 2013)

Shady said:


> Started off in 2011 smoking Black and Milds with the fraternity I was pledging at the time. Got out of those for a while, then one night after fire training (I'm a volunteer firefighter, we have training twice a month) the chief passed out cigars, I forget the brand now, and I was hooked.


My first cigar was also a black n mild out of high school. Definitely not the same as a premium cigar though is it?


----------



## Shady (May 9, 2013)

Definitely not. I enjoyed the Black and Mild Wine flavor, however I smoked one yesterday after smoking only quality cigars for the past few days and could not enjoy it at all.


----------



## B.mamba89 (May 30, 2012)

Bought my 1st hand rolled stogie on my 18th birthday it was a R&J ... 6years later here I am....


----------



## Bruck (Jan 8, 2013)

I've been smogging stogies of various quality, mostly low, off and on since late childhood, but it wasn't till I was stationed in a sandy locale a few years ago where there wasn't much to do but "Canadian" cigars were available in abundance, so I developed a taste for the good ones. Finally got around to getting a humidor and getting on the learning curve about 6 months ago, mainly bcs I was getting tired of "B&M blindness." I still suffer from this, but slightly less so.


----------



## jabuan (Jan 20, 2013)

I was only an occasional smoker. Once every 6 months or special occasions. I bought a couple to smoke in celebration of finishing paramedic school and getting certified. Totally arbritrary. And surprisingly, it was a bad experience with a j. Fuego 777 maduro that made me say "gahdamm that was wack." And it got me interested in what was considered a "good" cigar and started doing research. Found this place and the rest is credit card debt history.


----------



## Tobias Lutz (Feb 18, 2013)

I don't remember when, but at some point in my teens I smoked a couple sticks. Fast forward through my mid twenties and while I would smoke one when offered I would rarely go and seek one out. When I really got into running and quite smoking cigarettes after a number of years I took up a pipe and began pseudo-regular visits to the B&M to pick something out the humidor, though I never bought more than I intended to smoke on that occasion. Just a couple months ago I decided I was interested in building a collection (i.e. neurotically stockpiling :biggrin but I still only smoke a cigar once a week while I have continued my two bowl a day pipe hobby.


----------



## Chillin (May 11, 2013)

Well it seems like there's a reoccurring theme of just kind of happily stumbling into the cigar world. The first one should come with a warning label that reads "may cause empty wallet".


----------



## Gdaddy (Sep 20, 2012)

HIM said:


> Welcome to Puff Tony youve come to a great place!!!
> 
> I used to smoke cigars on occasion with one of my best friends dad throughout high school. I enjoyed but never was really big into it. Then years later another one of my best friends gave me an Oliva V on his birthday to join him for a smoke. That set me off on the slippery slope and the rest is history.
> 
> Don, that must have been a serious tease for the people in Gitmo. My daughters grandfather served some time there before coming to America and he said prisoners were allowed 1 cigarette a day. Pretty sh!tty.


When I was there, way back when Vietnam was going on and there were no prisoners. Bush started the prison in GTMO after we attacked Iraq.


----------



## Gordo1473 (Dec 1, 2012)

well..... a buddy at the fire station smokes, one day he said you want to try one? ive always liked the smell of cigars and pipes( my grandfather smoked a pipe) so i tried one. the rest as they say it is history.I found this forum and learned a lot. and spent a lot of money. built a kick ass humidor that i thought in a million years i would never fill. Guess what? its close. prob about 3-400 sticks since november when i started this journey. 

Embrace the slope


----------



## Beeman (Apr 12, 2013)

It's kind of sad, but peer pressure actually got me into it. One night in the aftermath of one of our frat parties one of the guys had a kickass humidor and suggested we all go outside for a smoke. After that one cigar I've been bumming a few off of friends each week, and more recently going to the B&M and grabbing a stick when I want to smoke one. I have some compulsive tendencies, so I've been shopping around for awhile and finally bought a humidor, cigars to fill it, and all the accessories. Now I just can't wait to start smoking a variety and find some favorites!


----------



## sjcruiser36 (Dec 20, 2012)

My better half use to smoke cigarettes, and now smokes pipe tobacco cigarettes (black and milds). Also my brother in-laws smoke cigars and I had never been interested in either in all those years. I went on a family vacation, and my nephew goes into cigar shop, and I follow. He picks up a few cigars, and the lady asked me what I wanted. I told her I didn't smoke, so my nephew told me to grab one for kicks, or he dared me to smoke one, or something like that, and the lady told me to try a rum infused cigar. That led to coming home and receiving several Acid Kuba Kuba's from my BIL's, and the rest is history as they say. I'll be celebrating my first anniversary the week of June 23rd.


----------



## Dio (Nov 17, 2012)

Couple years ago after class, around 5pm I ran into a professor who was smoking a cigar. He saw the camel crush between my fingers and gave me a cigar, either RP or 5 vegas. Try this and you will not go back to cigarettes again, said he.


----------



## beercritic (Feb 13, 2011)

I started with cigars, way back when a person coulees smoke at work (I'm an old fart). Switched to pipes, then cigarettes, figuring they would be quicker and I wouldn't get addicted. Wrong! Finally kicked them and didn't smoke for a decade. Cautiously picked up a cigar to see if I'd get that "addicted" feeling. Nope. 

Cigars are wonderful.


----------



## ichett (Apr 5, 2013)

I was at a wedding and during the reception fine wine, scotch and cigars were served. I sampled 4 or 5 different cigars and loved all of them.


----------



## zgnombies (Jan 10, 2013)

A friend of mine was into it about 6 or 8 years ago, so I smoked a few cigars with him. The funny thing is, when I got more seriously into it this last year, I got him back into them as well, so I guess things kinda came full circle.


----------



## Regiampiero (Jan 18, 2013)

Chillin said:


> Well it seems like there's a reoccurring theme of just kind of happily stumbling into the cigar world. The first one should come with a warning label that reads "may cause empty wallet".


Amen! Forget that Surgeon General thing about cancer, put a picture of a mans empty pockets on those boxes. I recently upgraded to a winador, thinking that it was going to take me the whole year to fill. Now I'm looking for another one because the first one along with my two desktops are all full.


----------



## Cigarluvr (Apr 28, 2013)

I start out smoking a pipe about 5 years ago. A couple years ago the local Tinderbox was having a Perdomo event. I knew my pastor smoked cigars and Perdomo's were one of his favorites. We went to the event and he bought me a Perdomo Habano Marduro Gordo and I've been hooked ever since.


----------



## travisgoldkuhl (Feb 13, 2013)

I was at a Halloween party and my friend gave me a cigar and then was hooked from that point on


----------



## OratorORourke (May 9, 2013)

My intro to cigars started with my grandfather who raised me in my early, formidable years. He was a regular cigar smoker and I couldn't wait to be like him. I started smoking cheap cigars like Backwoods in my late teens. Better cigars sporadically in my early twenties. In 2000, I started smoking more frequently, but I still really had no clue. Something clicked for me in the early part of 2010 and, especially in the warmer months, I average a stick a day (upwards of 3 a day on weekends). 

I am "all in" at this point. Currently, I am in the process of upgrading to a wineador (waiting on my drawers/shelves).


----------



## GrouchyDog (Mar 12, 2013)

My wife got me a 3-stick Diamond Crown sampler for Christmas last year.

Sadly, I didn't know what I had nor how to care for them and I was thinking "holy cr_p, I gotta smoke these things before they dry out and fall to dust!" So over about a week, I burned up all three knowing little to nothing about how to smoke or appreciate them properly.

I really regret those DC's because I'm not likely to see sticks that pricy again, but I'm also REALLY grateful to my bride for the gift (ongoing because I've been bitten by the cigar bug)!


----------



## marc in nola (Apr 8, 2013)

I would only smoke when I played golf, then about 2 years ago I reunited with a high school buddy that also liked to smoke. When I was playing golf, I would smoke anything from swisher sweets or phillies to a name brand churchill that I'd pick up at a local shop - it didn't really matter what I was smoking. I don't play as much golf anymore, but I'm not sure that I'd ever go back to smoking SS or phillies again now that I'm a cigar "snob" haha


----------



## Chillin (May 11, 2013)

OratorORourke said:


> My intro to cigars started with my grandfather who raised me in my early, formidable years. He was a regular cigar smoker and I couldn't wait to be like him. I started smoking cheap cigars like Backwoods in my late teens. Better cigars sporadically in my early twenties. In 2000, I started smoking more frequently, but I still really had no clue. Something clicked for me in the early part of 2010 and, especially in the warmer months, I average a stick a day (upwards of 3 a day on weekends).
> 
> I am "all in" at this point. Currently, I am in the process of upgrading to a wineador (waiting on my drawers/shelves).


 don't think my wife would ever speak to me if I were smoking that many cigars. I'm currently at 1-2 a week and she already gives me the look. My pocket book just isn't that deep!


----------



## OratorORourke (May 9, 2013)

Chillin said:


> don't think my wife would ever speak to me if I were smoking that many cigars. I'm currently at 1-2 a week and she already gives me the look. My pocket book just isn't that deep!


Tony, I was at 1 or 2 a week about 3 years ago. You will be amazed how you learn to bargain hunt, sale shop, coupon search and budget once you get hooked! I do slow down significantly in winter as I don't smoke in the house. So, I get back down to 1 or 2 a week in the coldest months (Dec, Jan, Feb). When you have to get in your car and drive to a B&M just to smoke a cigar or stand outside with a winter coat and gloves on to smoke, it definitely slows you down.

I broke my wife in slowly. Always used the approach of it was much cheaper than going out or made comparisons to much more expensive hobbies or habits I could be participating in.

Either way, 1 or 2 a week or 1 or 2 a day, as long as you enjoy it!


----------



## supahrob (May 6, 2013)

I got into em via my wife actually. She said I needed a way to relax, but did NOT want me to go back to cigarettes. She mentioned cigars, and I had always admired the elegance of cigars, so I tried em... and what can I say? My wife is a very smart woman - way too good for me 

Take care,
Rob


----------



## nfusion770 (Apr 1, 2011)

I smoked cigarettes since I was 12, but quit at 18. Around 21 or so my buddy and I picked up some cigars and started smoking them. I kind of smoked cigars seasonally and over the years had a few more stints with cigarettes as well. I stopped smoking cigarettes for the last time about 10 years ago. I didn't smoke anything for a long time but I picked up smoking cigars again in 2009/10 which is when I bought my first desktop humidor and it was all down hill from there .


----------



## Cigarluvr (Apr 28, 2013)

Chillin said:


> don't think my wife would ever speak to me if I were smoking that many cigars. I'm currently at 1-2 a week and she already gives me the look. My pocket book just isn't that deep!


I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones. I can smoke as much as I want and I can smoke in the house. Her ONLY rule is that I empty my ash tray when Im done.


----------



## supahrob (May 6, 2013)

Cigarluvr said:


> I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones. I can smoke as much as I want *and I can smoke in the house*. Her ONLY rule is that I empty my ash tray when Im done.


Lucky _lucky_ _lucky_ _*LUCKY*_ guy!

Take care,
Rob


----------



## alexcue (Mar 6, 2013)

Smoked cheapie Liquor store stogies in college. It was just a cool thing to do while playing poker and drinking. Years later, trips to Mazatlan and i was offered much finer Cigars. I was hooked!


----------



## TxCarlos (May 7, 2013)

During the mid 90's, when the Swing Revival was starting, friends and I changed from the club scene to a more of upscale bars. We seen others smoking cigars, so when in Rome as they say. We would visit our local Cigar store to pick up a few sticks and smoke all weekend long. I had very fond memories of those times.


----------



## mando3 (Feb 5, 2013)

Always loved the smell of tobacco, but got really tired of cigarrettes, so, started enjoying cigars, quit cigarettes and couldn't be happier


----------



## beachbum (Apr 12, 2013)

I've always been a runner, and never liked the idea of inhaling. My friend bought me a cigar for my 18th birthday, and we walked around the block while I smoked it to not get caught by my parents. I remember I really enjoyed the smoke but really disliked the aftertaste that required gum. I would still smoke one on rare occasion until deploying in the military. Smoking half a cigar a day on the ship's balcony while looking out to sea and seeing the dolphins swim along, was like stepping out into another world.


----------



## jco3rd (Apr 1, 2013)

My young brother in law actually got me to smoke my first cigar about two years ago. We would go to a local shop that had cigars, but I wouldn't grace with the term "cigar shop." We'd pick up a few sticks, and smoke in the garage. Neither of us knew much about cigars except that we wanted to stay below a certain price point. That was my first introduction. It was never incredibly regular, maybe once a quarter.

Fastforward a mere 9 months ago, and I'm brewing beer with a guy who used to smoke a ton of cigars in Mexico. After that when he came back to the states, he had a gig in North Carolina, and got hooked on JR. One day he finally filled the empty humidor in his house with some JR Alts, and we started smoking cigars on brewdays and whenever we were just hanging around. We went through that first batch early this year, and went cold turkey on the cigars for a month or so. I started to really start hankering for one again, and so started buying my own stash. Got a tupperdore after lurking around here to keep things reasonable for storage, and I'm slowly filling it up, mostly with budget sticks. By this time next week I will probably have 60-70! Yikes, how did that happen...


----------



## El_d (Jan 18, 2013)

I started with the Black and Milds and liked the Creame flavor untill one day my uncle , who did alot of buisiness in Central America, gave me a Cohiba and RnJ. 

I tried a Black and mild the other day, walked around with it in my mouth for about an hour because I couldnt light the thing, once I put a flame to that creame flavoured stick I remembered why I stopped.


----------



## dutchjim (May 17, 2013)

My introduction to cigars was in high school, between 1969 to 1970. A bunch of guys stated smoking Hav-A-Tampa. I don't know if they're still in production now, but I liked them back then. I graduated to White Owl and some I don't even remember. Smoked on and off since then. In the early 1980's my income increased and a cigar shop (Tinderbox) was nearby. That was my introduction to hand made cigars. I went home with a selection of Royal Jamaican, which was recommended by the owner, and that's when I was hooked. As time went on the internet happened, then the World Wide Web came about, I had a new experience with cigars, ordering different brands on the web, and I haven't looked back. Now its predominantly Padron.


----------



## bleber (Oct 13, 2012)

Hard to say. I think they called me. I would walk by the tinder box in the local mall and the smell would draw me in! So I bought a few, and liked them. Started with the AF Don Carlos and Ashton Classic.

Of course I went the Swisher Sweet/Black&Mild route in my younger years, but I don't count that a proper introduction.


----------



## Chillin (May 11, 2013)

I honestly didn't expect this much feedback. Great posts. I find it entertaining to see how everyone was introduced. Thanks for the stories.


----------



## john_c (Apr 25, 2013)

My first cigar was given to me by my friends father when I was 16. He was a Cuban refugee was younger, that had ended up making a hellva career/business since those times. He decided to celebrate by taking his son and his son's friends to a very swanky Cuban restaurant and went all out. After dinner he handed us all a Cuban cigar. I really wish I could appreciate it as I could now, not even sure which one it was. 

Flash forward a few years and my buddy was always handing out cigars to us at events. They were actually pretty nice cigars! Eventually I got the idea to not wait to get one from him and get my own...the rest is history.


----------



## TKE174 (Nov 19, 2011)

Long family tradition, kind of a right of passage been smoking cigars since I was 16ish, my son and I are now enjoying together.


----------



## SmokinJeweler85 (May 18, 2013)

I had a friend in middle school through high school that had a relatively wealthy family. His dad was, and still is, a local commercial real estate president. I would go with them to their lake house up north in Indiana all the time during summer vacations. Those are some of my most cherished memories during that akward time growing up. Beautiful three story home right on the water, complete with a dock, a ski boat, and two Sea-Doo's. They had a beautiful outdoor deck with a jaccuzi installed in it and, on the first night we arrived for the week, his dad would always fire up that jaccuzi, pop open a beer, light up one of his Cohiba's, and just relax and take in the beauty of the lake in the evening. That made a lasting impression on me. It looked like the ultimate way to just chill out from the daily grind. Fast forward to my 18th birthday, I went to the local B&M store and picked out my first cigar, a Macanudo Prince Phillip Cafe. My dad made lobster tails and bacon wrapped filet mignon for my bday dinner. My mom made my favorite cake, and I finished out the evening on our deck, with the boys, smoking that Macanudo. The rest, as they say, is history!


----------



## jco3rd (Apr 1, 2013)

Well that is an epic tale!


----------



## f4milytime (May 15, 2013)

Howzit, As for me a co-worker gave me an Onyx, and I was hooked. It was that simple, end of story. ALOHA !!!


----------



## LVS (Jul 12, 2007)

Cool thread! I started smoking cigars on Mother's Day. I was gifted a Makers Mark glass tubo cigar on Mother's Day by a fellow cigar smoker in 2003. He came to my house and felt bad that he did not have a present for me and gave me this cigar. We both smoked this cigar and sipped Maker's Mark Bourbon and I thought "darn this is cool". I've been hooked ever since.


----------



## The Nothing (Mar 22, 2013)

It's not too hard for me to remember since I've only been smoking a few months. I'm a stay at home dad with a now-5-month-old daughter. When my wife was at the end of her maternity leave and readying for work-life, we realized that I needed to have one night a week where I was guaranteed to get out of the house. I'm not good at being cooped up in the house. I get cabin fever within a few hours. The day my daughter turned 2 months old, I parked my convertible in the garage (very long term storage), bought a more baby-friendly vehicle, and quit my job.

Dad's Night was born that same night. I knew that very close to home was a cigar lounge inside a local hotel/restaurant/brewery/historical building. I had never been inside, but I knew they had more whiskeys than anywhere else near by, and the thought of enjoying a cigar was equally enticing. I arrived, picked out a Padron Executive Maduro and a Bulleit Rye.

It was like playing Black Sabbath at 78 speed. I saw god. I was in heaven.

I've been going back every week since that night. It has been wonderful. A few weeks into things I discovered a My Father's event at a local B&M. There I discovered more cigars, how to properly light my cigars, and more. A week or so later I discovered Puff and CI.


----------



## Nick1233 (May 17, 2013)

I was started in two ways, both about a year apart. The first was on a hunting trip, my dad picked us up some "victory cigars". They were some sore of cheapo gas station brand but it was the idea of it at the time. The next was on a fishing trip with my dad, uncles, and grandpa. It was a nightly ritual to talk about the day's catches while having a cigar and some Crown Royal. And again, the rest is history :smoke:


----------



## madbricky (Mar 29, 2013)

A nicely stocked b&m store tempted me into handrolled stogies. The rest is history.


----------



## c2000 (Oct 16, 2003)

Was held down and forced to smoke a fighting cock and got hooked.

Jerry in Minnesota.


----------



## JABECmfg (Sep 18, 2012)

Awesome thread! For me it was a Groupon deal of the day - 12 stick sampler from FSS, for like 25 bucks. My first thought was "that's the weirdest groupon I've ever seen", and I kept coming back to look at it. By the end of the day I'd decided to give it a try - as a cigarette smoker who would chain smoke when drinking, I thought it might be a nice alternative. Fast forward 1 year, and here I am on a cigar forum because I like them so much!


----------

